Environmental Values in American Culture

by Willett Kempton, Jennifer A. Hartley, James S. Boster

Book Overview

How do Americans view environmental issues? From EarthFirst members to sawmill workers, this study by a team of cognitive anthropologists offers both good and bad news for those addressing environmental issues in the public arena. On the one hand it reveals surprising similarities in the way different groups of Americans view long-term global environmental change, and on the other it shows that Americans have serious misunderstandings about these...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0262611236
• ISBN13: 9780262611237
• Release Date: August 1996
• Publisher: MIT Press
• Length: 334 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.9" x 8.9"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

What do Americans really think about environmental issues?

Kempton has done a real service to students and activists on all sides of environmental issues, by going out to find out what people "in the street" really think. With surveys and interviews, presented simply and clearly (without a jungle of tables and graphs) this study shows us just how deeply environmental values have penetrated the national consciousness. This book shows that environmental conservation is a majority, mainstream issue in the USA today. Americans from all walks of life, even people who make their living from cutting down forests and fishing our lakes and rivers, are now "environmentalists." And most are willing to make economic sacrifices to improve the state of the natural environment. The book has already had an impact on Washington. After this book came out, the Republican party suddenly dropped its anti-environmental rhetoric (though not its policies), and stopped trying to gut the EPA.